Design is 98% common sense and 2% aesthetics

Mumbai, Sep 5 (UNI) Design is 98 per cent common sense and two per cent aesthetics but tools of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) can be used in protecting industrial designs.

These observations were made at a workshop on '' Protection of Industrial Design'' organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here today. It was aimed at providing the Indian design industry direction in protecting their industrial designs at national and international levels, and in using these designs as a tool for competitive advantage as also in providing an exposure to the underlying principles and practices in industrial design.

Mr Bhavin Kothari of National Institute of Design (NID) said, '' design is 98 per cent common sense and the rest 2 per cent is aesthetics which actually makes the design interesting and challenging.'' Quoting President A P J Abdul Kalam, he said, '' Product design input contributes 60 per cent to its wealth generation (value addition) as well as influences 50 per cent of the inbuilt quality of its value chain and thereby contributes significantly to the competitiveness of the product.'' Dr Prabuddha Ganguli, CEO, Vision IPR said, '' Design is basically a combination of innovations which are of different elements such as inventions , which can be protected by patents, non-functional features , which can be protected by Industrial Design Registration (IDR), distinctive shape , which can be protected by Trademarks and expressions which can be protected by Copyrights.'' He also said protection of industrial design helps economic development by encouraging creativity in the manufacturing sector as well as in traditional arts and crafts, expansion of commercial activity and export of national products.

Explaining various criteria for registrability, Dr Ganguli said trademarks for perpetuity have to be renewed perpetually, whereas IDR can be renewed for a maximum of 5 years after the initial 10 years of protection.

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